Page 4 of Delivery After Dark (Gansett Island #28)

You should’ve said something to him before you left the church, Sierra thought as she sipped from a glass of wine that she planned to nurse for as long as she could make it last at the Beachcomber.

She’d closed the massage studio for the day in deference to the funeral and was indulging in a rare opportunity to day drink.

Usually, that led to an early bedtime, but she was taking it slowly so she wouldn’t be lights out by five o’clock.

After this day, she’d much rather be here with friends than home alone with her thoughts.

Morgan had been surrounded by people after the service, and Sierra hadn’t wanted to add to the crush when she could check on him at the gym tomorrow.

On one of her visits there, she’d left him a gift certificate for a free massage whenever he was ready for some relaxation.

She hoped he would take her up on it. Some guys were funny about massages.

They thought they were about sex when that was the last thing on her mind when she was caring for a client.

“Hey,” Duke said when he pulled up to the stool next to hers. He had longish dark blond hair, twinkling blue eyes, a full beard and sleeve tattoos.

“Hey, yourself.” Weeks after she’d made a fool of herself with him, she still found it difficult to look at the man who’d been her best friend for years.

“Nice service for Billy.”

“Yes, it was.”

“My heart goes out to Morgan. He’s lost his whole family.”

Sierra thought that was a sweet thing for Duke to say, considering he’d never had a family to call his own until he met McKenzie and her son, Jax.

“He’s been through a lot for someone so young.

” She’d guess that Morgan was in his late thirties.

“You think he’ll stick around after he settles Billy’s estate? ”

“Word on the street was that Billy didn’t have a will, so it’ll go to probate. That’ll take a while. In the meantime, he can keep the gym open or pay taxes and insurance on an empty building. If I had to guess, he’ll keep the gym running until it’s all sorted.”

“What about his own life and job?”

“I’m not sure what he’s doing about that. He must be on a leave of absence or something.”

“Do you have a will?” she asked Duke.

“I do now that I have McKenzie and Jax to think about. If something happens to me, everything goes to them—the property, the studio, my truck, savings, all of it.”

“You’ve already done that?”

“Yep. Kendall James helped me with it while Dan Torrington was in Maine. She walked me through every step of it, and I signed it a couple of weeks ago. I feel better knowing it’s done.”

“I’m trying to imagine what it would be like to care so much about someone else that you’d leave everything you own to her—and her son—a few months after meeting her.”

Duke shrugged as he smiled. “When you know, you know. The only thing I want in this whole world is to make a family with the two of them and anyone else who might come along.”

“So you guys might have more kids?”

“We’ve talked about it. I’m all for it. I love being a dad to Jax and watching him grow.”

“Sometimes I can’t believe you’re the same guy who avoided domestic stuff like the plague for your whole life.”

Duke chuckled as Jace put a draft beer in front of him.

“Thanks, Jace.” To Sierra, Duke said, “Sometimes I can’t believe it either.

Mostly, I can’t believe how lucky I am to wake up with her every morning and to hear the little guy chirping in his crib or see how thrilled he is to see me when I go to get him. ”

“I’m happy for you, friend, despite my bad behavior.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Sierra.”

“I feel like a total ass every time I think of that night.”

Cringe.

“I don’t want you having another thought about that. I’d hate for something silly like that to mess with one of my best friendships.” He nudged her shoulder. “So you can stop acting weird around me, like something has changed when nothing has, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Everything has changed for you.”

“Maybe so, but some things should never change, and you and me—that’s one of them. I miss you popping in to help yourself to my candy and doing lunch together and hanging out after work.”

“I figured McKenzie wouldn’t want you doing that stuff with me.”

He gave her a look full of amazement. “She knows how much my friends mean to me, that you guys are the family I never had. She’d never want to come between us. That’s not who she is.”

“Oh.” Now she felt doubly stupid about keeping her distance from him since that night. “Okay.”

“Are we good?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I want my friend back, Sierra. I miss you.”

“I’m right here.”

“Will you start bugging me in the studio between clients again and stealing all my candy?”

“If you insist.”

“I do.”

“Where’s McKenzie, anyway?” The two of them and McKenzie’s little boy were usually joined at the hip.

“She had two client meetings and is coming here with Jax when she’s done.” He took a sip of his beer. “Oh, hey, there’s Morgan. I’m glad he came.”

“Me, too.” Sierra was unreasonably happy to see him surrounded by people who wanted to help. Although why she cared so much about someone she barely knew was a mystery to her. Perhaps it was the tragedy of Morgan losing the last member of his immediate family under such awful circumstances.

She felt for him what anyone with a heart would, or so she told herself as a tingle down her spine indicated it might be something more than that.

You can lie to others, but you can’t lie to yourself.

She could almost hear her grandmother’s voice as one of her favorite phrases echoed through Sierra’s mind.

“Are you okay?” Duke asked.

She glanced at her friend to find him watching her with an intrigued expression. “What? I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

He shrugged. “Funerals can have weird effects on people. This one reminded me of when Rosemary died. The church-smells and the music bring it all back.”

Duke had been close to his next-door neighbor, who’d been more like a mother to him than anyone else had ever been. McKenzie was her granddaughter, and he liked to think Rosemary had fixed them up from the great beyond.

“I hope it brought back the good memories, too.”

“It did, but it was a reminder of the loss,” Duke said.

“It reminded me of losing my mom and grandparents, but I wanted to be there for Morgan. I really feel for him losing the last of his original family. That’s got to be brutal.”

“For sure, but at least he had them to begin with. He’ll carry them with him for the rest of his life.”

“True, but he’d rather walk beside them.”

“Yeah, for sure.”

While Duke chatted with Jace, Sierra kept her eye on Morgan as he worked his way through a room full of people offering condolences. Even from a distance, she could see that he was graciously accepting the outpouring, but his tension was equally apparent.

Sierra hoped he took her up on the free-massage coupon soon. If anyone had ever needed what she had to offer, it was him.